


Secrets and Surprises; When to Propagate Misinformation

by TheCrimsonJaguar



Category: My Life as a Teenage Robot
Genre: Family, Family Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, I'm kinda sick of the shipping in this fandom, Sorry Not Sorry, a bit of angst, despite it all Nora Wakeman is a good mom, so anything I post will all be gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:53:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28304862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCrimsonJaguar/pseuds/TheCrimsonJaguar
Summary: "It was a room, much like the rest of her mother's lab rooms. Cabinets lined the walls, papers lined the tops of the cabinets. A single light hung from the ceiling, glowing softly.And in the center of the room was a narrow table that held her fate."
Kudos: 5





	Secrets and Surprises; When to Propagate Misinformation

Jenny was the opposite of stupid. She was a walking, talking supercomputer, designed by a genius. She just also so happened to be a teenager, which was why people thought she was dumb.

She made mistakes, yes, but she learned from them. And that was more than most people ever did. Jenny was sick and tired of people thinking she was dumb.

She could see the stares she got in hallways. She could hear every whisper, ever hurtful word. Her sensors were advanced like that, and it was both a blessing and a curse. She was not only intellectually intelligent, she was _emotionally_ intelligent as well.

And this was a fact often ignored because she was a robot. 

The point being, she could hear Brit and Tiff gossip about her halfway across the school, and she couldn't do a thing about. She just had to sit in math class, feeling her mechanical heart shatter.

The bell rang at last, ten seconds off schedule as usual, and school was out. She walked home alone, since Brad and Sheldon were home sick.

It was an oddly peaceful day, the only things happening were simple crimes the police had handled. She was glad for the unusual quiet, she wasn't quite in the mood for crime fighting.

She opened the door to her house, and was suddenly struck with the realization that her mom was out on a business trip. She would be back later that night, but for now, Jenny was alone.

She stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. All was still, all was calm. 

The door to the lab was open, and light spilled through.

Something wasn't right. 

Jenny, now on high alert, crouched low and made quick, quiet steps forward. She morphed her hand into a blaster just in case, and descended the stairs.

The silence that was once calming was now bordering on eerie. There was no hum of machines, no rattle of pipes. She couldn't even hear the water boiler in the closet. Why was everything turned off?

She reached the bottom of the stairs. Nothing seemed out of place. Not a speck of dust disturbed. Something flying, perhaps? Or intangible. She flicked on her infrared vision and maxed out her audio receptors.

Walking through the lab, she scanned everything. Nothing seemed too off... there!

The closet was open. 

Jenny slid up to it, and peered inside. She frowned. There wasn't anything wrong, per-say... but there was some dust disturbed. Right there, on one of the back wall panels.

She reached out and pressed the panel, and the square clicked. The back of the closet suddenly folded open, as silent as a breeze.

A secret passage? Had this always been here?

She stepped inside. 

It was a room, much like the rest of her mother's lab rooms. Cabinets lined the walls, papers lined the tops of the cabinets. A single light hung from the ceiling, glowing softly.

And in the center of the room was a narrow table that held her fate.

Jenny gasped softly, her processors going into overdrive. 

She stepped back.

All was still.

Then, she heard the front door open. 

Fast as a jet, she flew through the ceiling and was soaring into space.

* * *

Nora Wakeman had managed to escape the vile clutches of the Skyway Patrol Highschool Reunion party earlier than she expected. Which was a relief, honestly. Sometimes she forgot what it was like to be a teenager, and going back, however brief, brought back all the unpleasant hormonal memories.

Maybe she could keep that in mind whenever XJ-9....  _ Jenny  _ came home in a funk. 

Opening the door to her home, Nora was immediately startled by a loud crash. Nearly jumping out of her skin, Nora clutched the doorframe and wrangled her breathing back under control.

Once her heart stopped pounding, she groaned. It was likely just Jenny again, getting excited and rushing off through the roof.

Nora sighed. It was just as well. She'd have to give that girl another talking to about the near daily property damage she inflicted on their house.

She shucked off her coat and rolled her shoulders lovingly. She could take a quick nap after she tinkered a bit on her passion project. Jenny didn't usually come back home for a few hours after she broke through the roof anyway.

She headed to the basement and when she reached her secret room, she paused. 

The door was open. She stepped inside and found the hole Jenny had apparently made in the ceiling.

The cold feeling of understanding washed over her. 

And then the burning feeling of determination swept over her dread.

It was time to set things right with her daughter. 

* * *

Jenny flew. To where? She didn't know. She wasn't thinking, she was thinking too much. She felt as numb as she felt torn. 

The prone form of the robot in her mother's secret room kept flashing through her memory. 

Jenny didn't want to be replaced.

_ Jenny didn't want to be shut down! _

An agonized sob broke free of her and she kicked an asteroid into oblivion. It cracked and blew into space dust. She didn't feel any better.

She tugged on her pigtails and felt the metal warp. She didn't know what to do.

She didn't want to leave the Earth... but she couldn't go back, could she? She didn't want to leave the Earth. She wanted to go home and just forget about all this. She wanted this to be some dream induced by some villain. It had to be lies. It all had to be fake.

Another sob wrenched itself free, and she curled into herself. She wasn't stupid. She knew it was real. She couldn't lie to herself.

Jenny floated through the abyss of space, and from a distance one would say she was just another piece of space debris.

She didn't want to leave. Where would she even go? Cluster Prime would accept her. She'd be welcomed there. She'd need to say goodbye to Brad and Sheldon and Tuck... 

She cried out, a fresh wave of sorrow going through her. She ripped off a pigtail and flung it into the vacuum. 

Would she be missed? Would the town notice she was gone?

She doubted it. 

XJ-10 would take her place and the world wouldn't notice a thing.

She was just a freak, just a superpowered freak. 

And she was just as replaceable as a broken calculator.

* * *

Nora had acquired a spaceship. Don't ask where, she won't tell you. She was tracking Jenny's signal and found that the girl had traveled very far. 

She bit her lip in frustration. She should have hid her plans better, somewhere else-

She should have told Jenny from the beginning.

She sighed. 

Nora watched the tracker beep as she closed in on her daughter's location. 

She hoped it wasn't too late to set things right.

* * *

Jenny looked up. A spacecraft was approaching. She squinted and saw her mom piloting it. A wave of emotion, unidentifiable and potent surged through her.

Jenny activated her boosters, prepared to bolt. A speaker came to life on the side of her head.

"Jenny, wait! Let me explain!!" Her mother called.

Jenny looked back at the spaceship and scowled. She pressed a button next to the speaker.

"Explain what? How you're going to replace me with some piece of junk!?" Jenny cried.

"Jenny, please, that's not what it is!" Her mother said.

Jenny laughed, bitter and wet, "Then what is it?"

"Jenny, please come home. I can explain it all there," Nora said, and Jenny met her mother's eyes.

She was pleading. Sorrow and worry were etched there, and no matter how mad Jenny was at her mom, she still loved her.

Even if she was being replaced, Jenny still loved her mom.

"Mom..." Jenny began, the anger fading from her voice.

"Yes, dear?" Nora asked softly.

"I- I don't want to be replaced!" She said, and she scrubbed her hands over her face.

"You're not, Jenny. I promise. You're never going to be replaced. Please, please come home." Nora said.

Jenny nodded shakily, and flew into the opened air-lock.

* * *

The flight home was quiet for a bit. Jenny wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Jenny..." Nora began.

"What?" Jenny asked.

"Did you know that you're a teenager?" Nora asked.

Jenny looked at her mom briefly, a bit of confusion in her eyes.

"Yeah, duh." She said.

"Did you know that teenagers grow?" Nora asked.

Jenny nodded.

"Did you know that you're growing too?" She asked.

"I mean..." Jenny trailed off.

"Not physically of course, but mentally. You're maturing." Nora said.

"Okay." Jenny said.

"You're maturing and I thought- well. I should have asked you first, but I wanted it to be a surprise. I see now that that wasn't the best course of action-"

"Mom," 

"Right, right, of course. You're maturing mentally and I thought, well, what about when you're older?"

"When I'm older?" Jenny asked.

"When you're out of high school, going into college, getting a job if you want to. When you're an adult in every sense of the word." Nora said, "I thought that maybe... you would want to look older too. To be mature on the outside." 

Jenny stared at her mother.

"I mean, I see now that I should have asked you first, and probably should have asked if you even wanted this- but I thought- I thought it would be nice. For when you're older." She said.

"...Does that sound good, dear?" Nora asked hesitantly.

"Uh, yeah. It, um, sounds nice." Jenny admitted, and a worried knot of wires in her gut loosened. She sniffled and rubbed her eyes.

"Jenny?" Nora called, turning away from the control panel and looking at her daughter.

"Oh Jenny," Nora said. She put the ship on auto pilot and hopped off her chair. She wrapped her arms around Jenny and held her close.

"You're my daughter, Jenny. You're irreplaceable."

**Author's Note:**

> *slams table* NORA WAKEMAN IS A GOOD MOTHER DAMMIT


End file.
